


Ink on your skin

by Winner_of_the_disability_bingo



Series: Soulmate September 2020 [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Batfamily (DCU), F/M, Gen, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:01:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26223064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winner_of_the_disability_bingo/pseuds/Winner_of_the_disability_bingo
Summary: Day 1 of Soulmate September 2020 - your soulmate's name is written on your wristBruce had been born with eighteen soulmates.
Relationships: Alfred Pennyworth & Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon & Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne & Helena Wayne, Bruce Wayne & Martha Wayne & Thomas Wayne, Cassandra Cain & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Duke Thomas & Bruce Wayne, Harper Row & Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Jim Gordon & Bruce Wayne, Leslie Thompkins & Bruce Wayne, Lucius Fox & Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Bruce Wayne, Talia al Ghul/Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne
Series: Soulmate September 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1904476
Comments: 3
Kudos: 131





	Ink on your skin

Normally, you had maybe four or five names written on your wrist, eight or nine at most, written in different colours. Red for romantic, orange for platonic, and blue for familial. Bruce Wayne had eighteen.

He had two romantic soulmates, three platonic soulmates, and thirteen familial soulmates. The list covered both arms up to his elbows.

His father had been concerned that he was born with so many names. His mother had always told him that it meant there was a great amount of love in his life. Alfred had just been glad that Bruce had soulmates. It wasn’t uncommon to be born without any marks, and Bruce was probably better with too many than none at all.

-

Bruce met his first romantic soulmate when he was nineteen. He had just returned from his training trip around the world when he saw a young woman pickpocketing an older man during a gala he was hosting. The man had been corrupt and honestly, Bruce would have been glad if the woman had decided to steal everything from that man. However, if he wanted to be Gotham’s hero, he would need to stop all crime. Even petty crime that the victim honestly deserved.

He followed the woman out into the gardens. She stopped when she noticed him there. He saw her smirk before she turned around and smiled broadly at him.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, Mister Wayne.” She had spoken his name as if she had known something he didn’t. Bruce did not like not knowing things.

It was clear she wasn’t new to pickpocketing. It was unlikely that Bruce would be able to get those things back from her. It was worth a try though, and practice for next time.

“I couldn’t help but notice you were stealing from that man back there. You didn’t happen to take anything that was mine did you?” the woman narrowed her eyes and her fake smile dimmed into a smirk. She was testing him. On what, Bruce did not know.

“You want to take care of you’re expensive vases but don’t care about the poor man whose valuables I just took? How selfish of you.” Bruce matched her smirk with one of his own. He like this woman.

“He’s corrupt as they come, I’m sure you would have better results if you went through his house instead of his wallet.” The woman laughed and held out a hand.

“It seems we’re in agreement, Mister Wayne. My name is Selina Kyle.”

-

He met his second romantic soulmate when he was twenty-seven. He had been tracking the Al-Ghul family for several months and had realised that his soulmate was among them almost immediately.

After they had gotten in contact, they had spent many nights together. Bruce knew that Talia was using him to get information for her father, but that had not mattered.

One night, Talia had asked him about the names on his arms. He learnt then that the League of Assassins removed soul-marks, usually by burning, from its members arms. It was done to ensure loyalty to the League above all else.

Bruce had shown her the names on his wrist. Stopping twice, at two name that were written in Arabic. Talia Al Ghul was one of them. The other was a familial name that Talia hadn’t recognised.

-

Bruce had known his first platonic soulmate almost his entire life. His father was close friends with Lucius’s father, and they often spent time together learning how to run the company when they were older. Lucius hadn’t cared that Bruce had so many soulmates, which was relieving.

Lucius had been the first non-family member who knew about his identity. He hadn’t approved, but had known he couldn’t stop Bruce.

Instead, he had upgraded all of Bruce’s Batman equipment. Every time Wayne Tech made a breakthrough, Lucius had applied it to almost everything in the Batcave.

-

Bruce had known his second platonic soulmate since he became Batman. James Gordon had been the first cop to see him, and the first to get close.

They rarely ever saw each other during the day. What reason would billionaire Bruce Wayne and detective Gordon have to meet.

Jim had found out his identity after Killer Croc had ripped Bruce’s sleeve off. The detective had been respectful, helping cover the names with a scarf he had with him, but obviously hadn’t been able to avoid seeing his own.

Jim only had six soulmates. His parents, his wife, his daughter, Bruce himself, and someone Bruce didn’t know.

Jim had called Bruce by his name right there on the GPD rooftop. After that night, Bruce promised to tell Jim everything that went on. They had each other’s trust.

That also meant that when a girl whose name they shared started running around on rooftops in a bat-suit, Jim knew almost immediately.

-

Bruce met his third platonic soulmate during a charity dinner. Leslie was one of the nurses that had decided to represent the hospital Bruce was donating to.

She didn’t tell him that they were soulmates, and Bruce hadn’t checked over the guest list. It wasn’t until Dick pushed her towards him that he even realised it.

Dick had been delighted to go his first gala. He had been even more delighted to learn that they were helping people by eating and talking.

He had separated from Bruce’s side almost immediately. As much as he wasn’t a fan of strangers, Dick could never sit still for very long.

Ten minutes later, Dick had pushed back through the crowd with a tight grip on a woman Bruce recognised as one of the nurses. They had stopped in front of Bruce and Dick had told him, very proudly, that ‘you have her name and she has your name’.

After a proper introduction, Dick had run back into the crowd to terrorise some unsuspecting socialites.

It was extremely hard to keep secrets from Leslie, and she had become his personal physician almost immediately. Soon, when he got home from patrol, Leslie would tend to his wounds while Dick begged to be allowed out with him.

-

Bruce’s first three familial soulmates had been there when he was born. Alfred was a platonic soulmate of both his mother and father. All three were delighted when they realised that Alfred was next to Thomas and Martha’s names on Bruce’s wrist

His mother and father spent as much time as they could with him, even taking him into board meetings and out to lunches. When they died, Alfred didn’t leave Bruce’s side.

No matter where he went, Alfred was there. As a butler, as a bodyguard, and as a guardian.

-

Kate was the next familial soulmate Bruce met. Cousins weren’t as common in soulmates but they weren’t unheard of. Kate introduced him to all her girlfriends the second they started dating.

Kate was close to Dick and Jason, even though they weren’t soulmates, something Bruce was grateful for.

Later, after Jason’s death, Batwoman joined Gotham’s vigilantes on a quest to kill the Joker.

-

Bruce was there the night the Flying Graysons fell. He had recognised the name form his list, and had gone to see the show.

When Richard Grayson was sent to Juvenile Detention, Bruce stepped in. the centre had been reluctant to hand Dick over, but with a wave of his money they accepted. He really would have to change the system.

After that, people who worked in the foster system demanded to do a review. Bruce knew they didn’t actually care about Dick, they probably just wanted to steal something or find some dirt on him. Bruce really didn’t want that.

He showed them Dick’s name, right below Alfred’s. the next day, newspapers all over the country reported that Bruce Wayne had just adopted one of his familial soulmates.

-

Bruce had met Barbara when she first snuck out of her house and hacked into his system. She had begged Bruce to let her go with him and Dick, who was now eleven, on patrol.

Bruce had had a discussion with Jim about it, where he learned that Barbara had been thinking about this for several months, and had even designed her own suit. Bruce knew that if he didn’t let her come with him, she would just do what Dick did and adventure out on her own.

A week later, Batgirl was by Batman and Robin’s side.

-

Jason had put up a fight when they first met. It was obvious to Bruce that he was an orphan. One not nearly as lucky as Bruce had been. He had taken the kid to one of Bruce’s safe houses and given him a bag of chips.

Less than an hour later, they told each other their names and Jason came home with Bruce.

The media was a frenzy once again. Once Dick showed them Jason’s mark on his skin, they cooled down.

When Jason died, Bruce refused to leave the house for anything other than patrol. He hadn’t told Dick, but the boy would have know the second Jason’s blue mark turned grey.

Dick wasn’t home in time for the funeral, and it was months before Bruce even heard from him.

Three months after Jason’s death, the grey mark glowed green. Right before Bruce’s eyes, the name settled on an aqua colour. When Red Hood appeared in Gotham, Bruce finally realised what that meant.

-

Meeting Cass was different. The first thing she did was attempt to strangle Tim, which didn’t exactly put her on Bruce’s good side. When she joined them, she didn’t speak, and she didn’t show her arms. When she did, Bruce saw that her names were burned off, much like Talia’s.

Cass didn’t know much English, Alfred taught her and Bruce, Dick and Tim spoke to her in Mandarin.

They knew that her last name was Cain, which didn’t exactly mean much. There were probably hundreds of Cains in the world. When she was comfortable, she wrote her name down in Chinese. The characters were identical to the ones on Bruce’s wrist, as well as the one on Alfred, Dick and Tim’s.

Less than a month later, Bruce had a new daughter and Gotham had a new hero.

-

Bruce met Tim about two months after the boy was born. Jack and Janet Drake had jumped at the chance to cosy up to one of the richest men in the world.

Bruce had ended up being something of an estranged uncle to Tim. The boy came over more as he got older, telling Bruce about his parents yelling at each other from across the mansion.

Dick loved Tim. Bruce would find the two in the library, learning English together, or, as Tim got older and more adventurous, hanging from various places that should not have people handing from them.

Jason didn’t quite trust Tim at first, but their names on each other’s wrists sorted things out rather quickly.

It was common knowledge that Tim and Bruce were soulmates. When Jack and Janet died, both Tim and Drake Enterprises were given to him.

-

Bruce had met Steph through Tim. Apparently, Steph had been running around as the vigilante Spoiler. Tim had caught her before she got herself into trouble and had learnt that she was one of his romantic soulmates, along with a boy whose name was in Kryptonian.

Since Steph was Tim’s romantic soulmate, and Bruce, Alfred and Dick’s familial soulmate, Tim decided to bring her home with him.

When Tim decided to leave Gotham and lead the Teen Titans, which Dick had founded several years earlier, Stephanie took his place as Robin.

-

Bruce met Harper at a gala celebrating his company planning to tear down her apartment. He realised immediately that she was from the Narrows, and had won access in a lottery of some kind.

Later that night, he saw Alfred talking to her and taking her down the hall away from the ballroom. Once Bruce had finished his conversation, he followed.

He found Harper and Alfred showing each other their arms on the balcony. Alfred told him Harper’s name and he joined them.

With a few arrangements, Harper and Cullen Row were officially foster children of Bruce Wayne. Not much time after, Bluebird was spotted for the first time next to Red Hood.

-

The first time Bruce met Duke, his family had saved Bruce from a hurricane. The next time they met, Duke was in a position Bruce swore no child would ever be in again.

There was nothing he could do for Duke’s parents, but there were things he could do for Duke. A week later, he was Duke’s foster parent.

-

Bruce had known that Damian was Talia’s child from the moment he translated their names. There had been no other way Ibn al Xu’ffasch could have been a child’s name. Bruce knew that the League of Assassins would keep the child away from him.

When the boy was ten, he appeared in Bruce’s home. Talia had explained soulmates to him, but he obviously had not cared. The boy turned away, everyone except Bruce. Not even his name Bruce’s children’s wrists persuaded him to spend time with them.

Then, Bruce was sent back in time and when he returned, Damian was as much a part of the family as the rest of them. He still fought with Tim more times than was probably reasonable, but he accepted that all of them were family.

-

When Helena was born, the entire family knew about it. They kept it from the press, no one who didn’t need to know knew.

Bruce’s name was on her arm. As were Alfred’s, Selina’s and those of Bruce’s other children. There were names Bruce didn’t recognise in orange and red. He hoped that whoever they were, they would accept the family that they would be brought into.


End file.
